


Survive (Just Try to Survive)

by Yevynaea



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Bill being creepy as always, Dark Character, Demonic Possession, Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, POV Alternating, Short One Shot, Threats of Violence, minor self-inflicted injuries because bill, the gist of it is bill possesses wendy ok that's it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-26
Updated: 2014-09-26
Packaged: 2018-02-18 21:37:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2362964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yevynaea/pseuds/Yevynaea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bill Cipher decides to stop waiting and speed things up a bit. Plans can only be put off for so long, after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Survive (Just Try to Survive)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song "Gentle Folks" by Hunter Hunted.

It was only about a week after the fiasco in the theater that Bill got bored of watching the signs and waiting for someone to get desperate enough that Bill could push a deal. The demon wasn't about to throw away decades and decades of work and meticulous planning just because of one little setback, and there was unfinished business to be taken care of that required a physical body. Pine Tree was Bill's favorite, obviously, but the others could have their uses, too.

Shooting Star would be preferable, honestly, she was energetic and healthy and durable, not to mention most of the town would listen to and trust her no problem. But getting to her would almost definitely prove too difficult; she knew from her brother not to make a deal, and there was nothing urgent enough to warrant a lapse of judgment on her part.

Question Mark, Soos, was a decent choice, but he knew Bill almost as well as the twins did, so it would be difficult to get him to make a deal, too. Plus, Bill had always been partial to taking the forms of children, humans usually had more energy and were less likely to break if they were under 20 or so. (Bill thought it was strange that humans became so much more fragile as they aged, while demons were the exact opposite.)

Stan, Bill didn't want to possess quite yet, because it wouldn't do to rob the man of a front row seat to Bill's grand plans. They did include revenge, after all, and Bill didn't want the target of that revenge to be beaten preemptively. That was just no fun.

This left the Ice. Wendy Corduroy, Red, et cetera. She was young, strong, and agile, had never met Bill personally and knew little about the demon yet. Plus, she was tall. Bill had always loved being able to look down on people. The only problem was, the girl was too smart to fall into a deal without being backed into a corner first, without her axe and with too many snarling wolves closing in from all sides for her to vault over. Metaphorically, of course, literal wolves would ruin the vessel before Bill could even take it. Bill could just possess her without a deal; push her consciousness back and take over, but she was stubborn and strong willed, just as much so as the twins. There was no way Bill would be able to keep control of her body for long without pushing her out first.

Bill decided that a plan was needed if Wendy was to be lured into a deal. And it would have to be a plan that could work fast.

»«»«»«»«»«»«

Wendy startled awake, breathing too quickly to really get any air. Her nightmares had been getting worse and worse the last few weeks, and sometimes she'd get up a few different times before waking up for real and managing to affirm that she wasn't still asleep. She'd been tired all the time, her sleep schedule had gotten even worse than normal, and it was starting to wear on her body and mind. A lot.

Sighing at the clock flashing '2:34' from her bedside table, Wendy sat up and came face to eye with a faintly-glowing yellow triangle floating at the foot of the bed. She was inclined to believe that she hadn't woken up quite yet. Then again, Gravity Falls did have some weird stuff going on, and hadn't Dipper said something about a triangle guy? Wendy couldn't quite remember what he'd said, now. She was still too sleepy. Or maybe just still asleep, she hadn't been able to determine that quite yet.

"Hey, kid!" The triangle greeted cheerily, tipping its hat.

"What the hell are you and why are you in my house?" Wendy demanded curtly, almost cringing at how much she reminded herself of a cheesy movie. The triangle laughed.

"The name's Bill Cipher, not that you asked. I'm a demon. And I'm actually not in your house!" Bill replied. Wendy got the feeling the demon would be grinning at her if it had a mouth to do so.

"What does that even mean? Of course you're..." Wendy trailed off when she saw how smug and amused Cipher was managing to look without having much of a real face. Wendy looked around at her surroundings. Her room was dark, as it was still the middle of the night, and everything looked kind of grey-ish from the dark, but it was definitely normal. Except...Wendy flicked on the lamp by her bed, and the light did nothing to color the room. Everything was still in black and white.

"Like I said, kid. Not your house." Bill said gleefully.

"Where are we, then?" Wendy asked, glaring at the triangle. She was about eighty percent sure now that she was still dreaming.

"The dreamscape! Nice, isn't it?" Bill asked.

"I'm gonna go with no. This place is creepy, honestly."

"Aw, come on, Red. You're no fun." The triangle laughed, and Wendy felt something niggle at the back of her mind; almost a memory. She just couldn't reach it before it disappeared again.

"Is this real?" Wendy asked. The triangle just blinked at her. "Is this conversation really happening, right now? Or am I still dreaming?"

"Possibly both." Cipher answered thoughtfully. "You're definitely not awake, but who's to say whether these things are real or not?"

"So this is a dream." Wendy looked to the demon for confirmation. Bill nodded. "Then I am going back to sleep now."

"Ha, going to sleep inside a dream, that's gotta feel weird." Bill said. Wendy flopped back down in bed, putting her pillow over her head so she wouldn't have to listen to the triangle talk anymore. "Or it might just be awful, seeing as you have those terrible nightmares every time you try to sleep nowadays."

Wendy moved the pillow and glared at Bill.

"What would you know about the nightmares?" She inquired.

"Maybe I'm a personified part of your subconscious mind and know everything about it." Cipher replied, and once again Wendy felt like she'd be seeing the demon grin if it could.

"Uh huh." Wendy said dubiously.

"I know lots of things, kid." Bill insisted. "How do you know I'm not part of your subconscious?"

"I'm pretty sure my subconscious wouldn't call me 'kid'." Wendy deadpanned. "What does this even have to do with my nightmares, dude?"

"I can help." Bill said cheerfully, not entirely answering the question. "With the nightmares. Make them go away. You'll never have to fear sleeping again."

A little red warning flag popped up in Wendy's brain.

"What's the catch?" She asked suspiciously. "Demons make deals, right? What would I have to give you in return?"

"Oh, not much." Cipher waved one hand dismissively. "You'd have to lend me a hand for a while. You don't have to do anything for me that you don't want to do."

"Hmm." Wendy remained unconvinced. Try as she might, though, she couldn't find a downside to Bill's offer.

"Deal?" The demon asked, holding out one thin hand, which started burning with blue fire. Wendy frowned.

"Deal." She agreed reluctantly, taking Bill's hand. The fire spread from Cipher's arm to hers, the world abruptly snapped back into color, then the triangle pulled her forward, and Wendy felt a sickening lurching sensation.

She tumbled forward and up into the air, and turned just in time to see Bill seemingly phase into her body.

"What?!" Wendy looked down at herself, feeling sick at how transparent her form was. She was like a ghost. She glared at Bill, who was now flexing her fingers and toes and grinning up at Wendy with her own face. Wendy almost shuddered at the eerie expression. "This is so not cool, man."

"I said you'd have to lend me a hand." Cipher shrugged, her expression exceedingly self-satisfied. "I just failed to mention you'd be lending me the rest of you, too. And I did stop your nightmares; without a body you don't need sleep, therefore, no nightmares!"

"Give me my body back, you yellow creep!" Wendy lunged at her body, but she went right through it and ended up phasing through the wall and into her brothers' room, where they were all snoring soundly. She growled and turned around, flying back through the wall, but Bill wasn't on the bed. Instead, the demon was rifling through Wendy's closet, pushing shirt upon shirt out of the way and frowning at every single one.

"Do you own anything that isn't flannel, kid?" Bill asked, brushing her hair out of her eye with annoyance. "Oh well, it'll do for now. The hair, though, will definitely have to be dealt with."

»«»«»«»«»«»«

Mabel had gone to Candy's house for a sleepover the night before, and hadn't come home yet, and Grunkle Stan was leading the first tour of the day around while Soos cleaned up around the Shack, so when Dipper came down from the attic he found himself alone with Wendy.

"Morning, Wendy!" Dipper said cheerfully, waving at her as he walked into the gift shop. When no answer came from her, he looked over to where she was sitting atop the counter. Then Dipper stopped and blinked in mild confusion when he saw what she was doing.

Wendy had rubber bands wrapped tightly around all of her fingers, and the tips were well past turning purple and were now a worrying blue-black in color. Wendy was simply watching her fingers get closer and closer to necrosis. Dipper also noticed that her hat was missing, and she had her hair pulled up into some kind of complicated twisty thing.

"Uh, Wendy?"

"Red's not home right now, Pine Tree." The girl looked up with a wide grin, and Dipper recoiled at the words, his mind racing through scenario after scenario. How had Bill managed to steal Wendy's body?

"Where's Wendy?" Dipper demanded, and Bill's eyes flicked from Dipper to a spot behind the boy's head, then went back to Dipper. Bill made a vague dismissive motion with one hand.

"She's around." The demon answered. Dipper grit his teeth and resisted the urge to turn around, knowing he wouldn't see anything even if Wendy really was behind him.

"What do you want, Bill?" Dipper asked, clenching his fists. Bill didn't pay him any attention and started started to slide the rubber bands off of her discolored fingers one by one.

"Well, first thing, I want to find that journal." Bill finally replied, completely nonchalant. "And a match or eight wouldn't go amiss."

"Not going to happen." Dipper said firmly, but shrunk back when Bill stood from the counter, looming over Dipper threateningly. Bill grabbed Dipper's arm, her grip deceptively and inhumanly strong, and dragged Dipper forward until they were face to face.

"Look, kid, I've been playing nice, letting you off easy, pretending to let you have the upper hand while I bided my time," Bill said with faux friendliness in her tone, ignoring Dipper's protests. "But let me tell you what's gonna happen now. You'll tell me where the journal is, or Red isn't going to have a body to come back to. That sound like a good deal to you, Pine Tree?"

Dipper swallowed the lump that had climbed into his throat. He searched his mind desperately for a way to get out of this.

"Good." Bill apparently had taken his silence as a yes. "Now let's go find that journal.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I intended for Bill to be a bit more subtle, to try and blend in and trick everyone into thinking nothing was wrong like he (sort of) did when possessing Dipper in Sock Opera, but then he was like 'haha nope' and ended up taking the ending in a completely different direction. I was basically trying to write him as being sneaky and he decided to be all "Ayyyy, Pine Tree, guess who!" But it worked out ok anyway...maybe not for Dipper, but oh well.


End file.
